Korean Dogs Rescued from Abusive Meat Rancher

[Guest guest]

Please read this letter and a send a message to the Ambassador to help the

suffering animals in Korea. Thank you.

Patricia

 

 

 

Forwarded Message:

Subj: Korean Dogs Rescued from Abusive Meat Rancher

3/30/2006 11:48:43 AM Eastern Standard Time

kristie

kristie

Received from Internet: click here for more information

 

 

Korean Dogs Rescued from Abusive Meat Rancher

Humane Organizations Seek to Strengthen Animal Protection Law

 

IDA has long protested South Korea's notorious dog and cat meat trade,

working with local groups to bring the practice to an end and urging the

government

to enforce existing laws that ban dog and cat consumption. Our efforts have

been reinforced recently by two exposés of dog farms broadcast on Korean

television which showed hundreds of dogs crammed together in tiny cages where

they

couldn't even move or stretch their limbs. The dogs suffered unimaginable

cruelty before being loaded onto trucks bound for slaughter.

 

In recent months, a land dispute led to a large number of dogs being

deliberately neglected, abused and starved so that the animals' " owner " could

claim

compensation from the government. He raised the dogs on property that he didn't

own, then left them to suffer when authorities tried to reclaim the land so

that he could blame them for his financial losses. Dogs were found on this meat

ranch without any shelter from freezing rain and other harsh winter elements.

They were covered in their own feces, their skin infested with scabies and

infected sores. Literally starving to death, the hungry dogs resorted to

cannibalism. Tragically, some adult dogs became so ravenous that they ate their

own

newborn pups. Many suffered serious injuries such as missing ears or tails but

received no medical attention.

 

Working alongside other animal rights organizations, IDA's colleagues, Animal

Freedom Korea (AFK), were able to rescue 50 of these mistreated dogs. The

groups also held a protest focused not on opposing dog meat, but rather on

securing the right to seek shelter for dogs under the Animal Protection Law.

While

the groups see banning dog meat as a long-term plan, they are working on laying

the foundation by advocating for amendments to South Korea's Animal

Protection Law. The first step would be to ensure that abused animals are

removed from

cruel " owners " and immediately given refuge by reputable animal rescue

organizations, which is not possible under current animal protection laws.

Currently,

animal protection organizations cannot even take custody of abused animals to

ensure their safety without the " owner's " permission, no matter what kind of

abuse the animal has suffered. Secondly, the groups want people convicted of

aggravated cruelty to animals to be punished with heavy fines and/or

imprisonment. At present, the penalty for animal cruelty is a mere $200, not

nearly

enough money to deter dog meat profiteers from abusing their canine cash cows.

 

Animal protection groups working in South Korea believe that without a proper

Animal Protection Law, the dog and cat meat trade will be impossible to stop.

Amendments could be submitted to the National Assembly as soon as June of

this year. We will keep our readers up to date on any developments in future

e-news reports.

 

What You Can Do

 

Write to the South Korean government and ask that they amend the Animal

Protection Law as described above.

 

Ambassador Lee, Tae-Sik

Embassy of the Republic of Korea

2450 Massachusetts Ave., NW

Washington, D.C. 20008

Tel: (202)939-5600

Fax: (202)797-0595

E-mail: korinfo

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sincerely,

Kristie Phelps

Campaigns and Communications Manager

Tel.: 757-423-0093

Fax: 866-464-3098

 

“It’s a matter of taking the side of the weak against the strong, something

the best people have always done.â€

 

Harriet Beecher Stowe